Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 28, 2009

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, punching bag of the White House and the left-wing

It all comes down to trust. And that trust has been violated time and again by the established media, whether on TV or in print/web-based sources.

Americans used to trust them implicitly. But how can we anymore?

So many of the liberal newspapers have been guilty of choosing to not publish or post on their websites controversial news stories (i.e., ACORN sting scandal, NEA scandal, green jobs czar Van Jones controversy, tea party rallies against ObamaCare and taxes), or if they do run a story, it’s watered down, well past the story’s prime, slanted against conservatives with hyperbole or falsehoods, or is altered without notice. Sometimes a story or article disappears… again, with no notification.

Liberal comedian Jon Stewart of the “Daily Show” recently chastised the news giants about their failure to cover the growing ACORN scandal with James O’Keefe’s shocking exposé videos, “Where were the real reporters on this story?? Where the hell were you?” Stewart’s taking the media to the woodshed is in this encore video from Bill O’Reilly’s FOX show (starts at about the 2:53 mark)…

UPDATE, January 12, 2010: YouTube has removed this video (as they’ve been doing with alarming frequency, claiming copyright issues, on many TV broadcasts that are unflattering to the Obama administration or Democrats. Unflattering accounts of conservatives, the GOP, GW Bush, Sarah Palin, etc., don’t have this problem of being yanked. I will attempt to locate another copy to replace this one. If you come across one, please let me know the embed code in the Comments section, and I’ll replace the video. Thanks.

For many Americans, reading what used to be trusted news sources has fallen to the wayside. Listening to conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or searching out non-left-wing sources on the Internet is replacing what has become highly biased, distrusted news sources.

The price is being paid for the journalistic bias. Falling subscription numbers of the major newspapers and the rising TV viewership / radio listenership numbers of Limbaugh, Beck, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly tell the story. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the conservative talk show hosts have been willing to expose corruption (conservative as well as liberal) and dig for stories that the major news sources have not. When the source of news isn’t trusted, the public leaves and finds sources they DO trust.

Powerful exposé by ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief you won’t read in the fringe media… here’s a snippet of “ACORN and SEIU: Anatomy of a Shakedown” from Big Government:

…As various charges and complaints have materialized over the years, it seems that ACORN uses the communities in which they are located as staging grounds for national power grabs. With multiple states and entities receiving federal funds, ACORN plays to win. Aiding ACORN are groups like DEMO’s, the Democracy Alliance, Soros Open Society Institute, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)…

Trust in the mainstream or fringe media is at an all-time low. And that lack of trust is growing as it is revealed that altering reports or removing them altogether in this day of cyber-news is happening more often.

One of the more recent, well-known occurrences of altering or removing controversial stories from the Internet occurred in June 2009 on the Playboy magazine website.

Within a few hours of a vile, sexist piece about power-raping conservative women was posted, Playboy yanked it and left no explanation.

From No Hate Here at Playboy, Guys… Just Some Good Ol’, Fun-Lovin’ Power-Rape of Conservative Women:

Why aren’t women’s liberation groups or so-called compassionate liberals decrying this offensive article? Are they still too busy maligning Prejean and Palin and cooing over the troll Perez Hilton?

After the misogynist article was posted for a while—I imagine the blogosphere went absolutely berserk—it was yanked and replaced with a ludicrous error message page featuring a barely clad young woman sticking her tushie in your face. Apparently, though, this piece of crap “article” will appear in the magazine’s print edition. No wonder Hef’s magazine is tanking.

Deleting portions of an article or the entire piece is no guarantee that it’s gone for good. Thanks to the speedy image-capturing of Caleb Howe at RedState, the original Playboy article can still be viewed: The Playboy Article (NSFW)… click here for the original, foul-mouthed, left-wing extremist contents that Playboy posted, if you’re curious). Warning: frequent profanity, strong hate language.

Screenshots of the now removed Playboy article below. Be warned, they are not edited for content. (click to view full size).

Altering or removing stories without acknowledging the change is not limited to niche sites like Playboy, but is now occurring with alarming frequency at prominent web-based news sites, as noted by blogger Jonathan Adler:

From The Volokh Conspiracy, Revising Web-based Newspaper Articles Without Informing Readers:

On Wednesday, I wrote a brief post on ACORN’s lawsuit against those who made and distributed the now-infamous undercover videotapes of ACORN staff. In the post, I linked to a Washington Post story on the suit. Today, however, I learned that the story at that link is no longer the same as when I made my initial Wednesday post. As noted in an early comment on my post, the original story included the following:

In an exclusive interview with the Post, founder Wade Rathke said conservative claims that ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a “criminal enterprise” that misuses federal and donor funds for political ends — a claim contained in a report by House Republicans — are a “complete fabrication.” He said exaggeration and conjecture about the group are being passed off daily on cable television and web-site blogs as documented fact.

“It’s balderdash on top of poppycock,” said Rathke, who was forced out last year amid an embezzlement scandal involving his brother.

Portions from this passage no longer appear in the story as it now appears on the Post website. Now the relevant portion of the story simply reads:

Meanwhile, the departed founder of ACORN said many of the accusations about the group are distortions meant to undermine President Obama and other Democrats.

In an interview, Rathke said conservative claims that ACORN is a “criminal enterprise” that misuses federal and donor funds for political ends — an allegation contained in a report by House Republicans — are a “complete fabrication.” He said exaggeration and conjecture about the group are being passed off daily on cable television and blogs as documented fact.

Missing are the reference to the “embezzlement scandal” or the colorful quote. Gone as well is the mention of an “exclusive” interview. Yet there is no acknowledgment anywhere in the story that it was edited.

Adler concludes:

So, the Washington Post published a story on its website, revised the story to omit details that appeared in the relevant piece, and yet did not disclose these facts to the Post’s online readers. Isn’t this a problem? There may well have been valid reasons for revising the story. Perhaps an editor thought the story got relevant facts wrong or concluded reference to the embezzlement scandal was unfair. Whatever the reason for the change, the Post should have disclosed that changes were made and that it had decided to excise information included in the original story.

This is not the first time I’ve noticed the web site of a prominent news organization failing to disclose that it had edited the web-based version of a story after initial publication. The NYT, for example, did it when reporting on the Administration’s decision to abandon a planned missile defense of Poland and the Czech Republic, as I noted in an update to this post. Is this now common practice? If so, it seems to be a major failing. Responsible bloggers routinely disclose anything more than the most minor stylistic and typographical revisions to published posts. I would think newspaper websites could do the same. Indeed, shouldn’t newspapers at least match the disclosure norms observed by bloggers? After all, they’re the real journalists.

Major news sources also have posted and/or printed rumors and false stories with little to no fact-checking. That’s nothing new, as it’s happened since print media’s earliest days.

However, how the major newspapers place the blame these days for their amateurism IS new.

From BibleBeltBlogger:

Newspapers and a prominent magazine printed false stories about Chelsea Clinton this summer. And guess who The New York Times is blaming for the shoddy journalism?

a.) Inaccurate reporters.
b.) Incompetent editors
c.) Inept fact-checkers
d.) The Internets
e.) The Clintons

The answer is: d. And e. According to Peter Baker of the Times: “The persistence of the rumor [that Chelsea Clinton was getting married in August] despite the lack of tangible evidence says something about the Internet-driven media culture, where facts sometimes do not get in the way of a good story. It also says something about the Clintons and the mistrust they have engendered over the years that so many people do not take them at their word, even over a question like this.”

So which segment of the Internets got the story wrong? In the story, Baker says the Boston Globe started the rumor mill going in May. As the date of the non-wedding neared, New York magazine, the New York Daily News, The Washington Post and the New York Post all wrote about it.

During these tough economic times, newspapers are suffering and they’re requesting a taxpayer bailout. Rather than give them a government handout to continue their shoddy practices, I’d like to suggest that they try something novel.

Like reporting the news. Whether that news exposes corruption in this White House administration or not.

Something wild and unexpected like that could start to rebuild the violated trust felt by so many Americans. It would take time to accomplish, but returning journalism to hard-hitting, investigative reporting like it was during former administrations would bring back the people. And the revenue.

Related reading:
Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters: Media Ignore ACORN Giving Business Advice to Pimp and Prostitute
Power Line: Keeping Readers In the Dark and Keeping Readers in the Dark, part 2
Gateway Pundit: Andrew Breitbart: Journolist Is a “Watergate of Epic Proportions” & State-Run Media Is Burying the Story (Video) and Huffington Post Writer Hid Bill Clinton’s 2008 Affair to Protect Hillary
Diary of a Mad Conservative: My God – it’s a nightmare!!!! and Recent ACORN tapes not news to the Times and ACORN BLOCKBUSTER – HERE IT IS…
Andrew Breitbart, Big Government: Two Fish, One Barrel: Deconstructing Andrew Sullivan’s ‘The Breitbart Standard,’ Demolishing Conor Friedersdorf’s ‘The Right’s Lesser Media’
Sister Toldjah: Bogus quotes and the WaPo
Chris Moody, Big Government: Michael Moore Fails to Call Out Keith Olbermann’s Hypocrisy
FOX News: Mainstream print and broadcast media ignore Van Jones: timeline of who reported what and when
Big Hollywood: ‘The Audacity of Hos’: ‘Daily Show Skewers ACORN
Billy Hallowell, Big Hollywood: Michael Moore: Mainstream Media Boosts Dishonesty
Kathryn Lopez, Townhall.com: ACORN Scandal Has Deep Roots
Times Watch: Hoyt Admits Times Slow on ACORN, But Not First Conservative Media Story It’s Ignored
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Obama Journalism Bias “Good”: How’s That Stimulus Going? Obama Wants to Open Newspaper Bailout Bill… Who’s in YOUR Wallet Again? and Brilliant Sting Strategy: Exposing ACORN and The Fringe Media (video) and ACORN: “We’ll Help You Get Away with Stuff” — Jay Leno, Bill O’Reilly, & Dennis Miller Weigh In (video) and ‘Big Government’s’ Breitbart Lets Major TV News Media Have It for Lying, Ignoring, or Distorting ACORN Child Hooker-Tax Fraud Scandal (video) and The Dying Mainstream Media = “Fringe Media” (political cartoons, video) and Olbermann’s Left-Wing Rage about Czar Van Jones Quitting: Help Keith “Get Dirt” on Glenn Beck
zomblog: Death Threats Against Bush at Protests Ignored for Years
The Conservative Pup: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN Abandon All Pretense Of Journalism
Another Black Conservative: Leno lampoons ACORN
Jeffery Lord, American Spectator: Media Malpractice: Tom Brokaw’s World Implodes and The Real Van Jones Scandal: Why Glenn Beck Is Right
Just Americans Making Ethical Statements Weblog: WH Green Czar Van Johnson linked to Group attacking FOX News and Glenn Beck
Left, Right, and Centered: Imagine What The Press Would Do With This Under W
Speaking My Mind: Van Jones And San Quentin – A Match Made In Heaven
Observations, Chitchat, and Idle Gossip in the Smile Hi City: A target rich environment

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN corruption, ACORN scandal, altering stories, Anita MonCrief, Bill O'Reilly, Daily Show, fringe media, green jobs czar, Jon Stewart, journalism bias, journalism corruption, journalist bias, mainstream media, media bias, media integrity, NEA, New York Times, newspaper, Playboy, political, politics, removing stories, revision, trust media, Van Jones, video, YouTube